Ch 43: The Shrine's Magic Beast

A solitary raven watched as shadows obscured Baldeur and he slipped into the shrine. It ignored the rest of the battle as it slipped through a hole in the rocks above the wooden arch that their mistress had created for them in order to spy on the entity contained within.

It was also around this time that Aisling noticed that Baldeur was missing but with all the enemies around them, she couldn't look for him.

The raven's mistress was miles away watching through its eyes. Veneris was surprised at how things had turned out.

The playboy idiot had completed the main objective she gave him, but caused a beast tide as a result. Half the beasts born at that time were killed by the experts that were guarding him. Now the remnants are dying off but also become stronger with each of their kills.

The idealistic moron somehow lucked into finding and gaining the aid of two talented women. They were also able to complete the main objective and keep the eggs from hatching into another beast tide.

Now she was curious how the last one would fair. To her he was the cleverest and had the most potential.

Inside, the raven and its mistress could see Baldeur pulling a staff from a dimensional storage.

The staff was a polished branch with knots and curves in it. The head split into three and curled around three different gems; a blue sapphire, a green emerald, and a yellow topaz.

He wasn't planning on using his staff but once he stepped past the rope wards, he could feel the aura of the creature within.

It was an Infernius magic beast that shouldn't be able to exist in this world. Yet another anomaly of this world.

Each Source had certain races and magical beasts that only existed on worlds that had those Sources.

Pegasus needed Mana, qilin needed Qi, and in this case the dokunpal needed Infernius. The only reason it could be here was the demon Sathanas and those Accursed stones that he saw being created.

'See what is before and behind: Sensory Mapping.' As he finished the spell, blue wisps of Mana shot out from Baldeur's staff. In a moment he had a mental map of most of the caves around him.

For the most part the tunnels that lead off the main cave were just large enough for someone to walk upright and the rooms they led to were mostly for storage and sleeping.

There was a large room deeper in the cave that must serve as the main shrine. His spell didn't extend past there.

Only six other people were still in the shrine and they were all gathered near the dokunpal.

As he walked towards the main part of the shrine, Baldeur laid down some traps. Web spells, sleep spells, and the like filled the corridor.

When he entered the main part of the shrine the cave expanded. A number of burning fires sustained with Mana lit up the area. Ropes with pieces of cloth hung from the walls, each with a spell embedded in it.

In one of the small alcoves was Leith. The young lady laid on some rugs and pillows, with a dead look in her eyes.

Baldeur walked over to her and pulled a blanket over her while singing a lullaby. The young woman didn't even acknowledge him as the sleep spell put her in a deep slumber.

With that taken care of, Baldeur turned back to the shrine.

Five women kneeled in front of the dokunpal. Two were using Mana to create a Wind Wall around the magic beast. The other three were using the nature aspect of Mating to calm the creature.

The dokunpal itself was spread across the surface of the cave. Flesh, the color of the rocks, pulsed from all angles. Little nodes stuck out here and there. Currently they are releasing pollen with the intent of luring people to it. The Wind Wall was keeping pollen at bay.

A few larger nodes had tentacles reaching out of them. The Anodular spells were keeping them passive as they weakly looked around for prey.

In the center of the mass of flesh was a node a few feet tall and wide. That was where the heart and brain of the monster was. The largest tentacles were also contained within.

This magical beast was often used on Tartarus as a biological weapon. A single dokunpal would be placed in a dark damp cave in the enemy's lands. The pollen would attract people who would be trapped by the tentacles and impregnated.

If the person caught had female reproductive organs, the creature's secretions would induce ovulation and the egg would be forced to split into more eggs. After a few hours, those eggs would be laid when they were the size of golf balls.

A day later they would hatch into beasts with insect features. Those beasts would then kill nine out of ten people they encountered and bring the tenth back for the dokunpal.

Another mystery was why the mountains weren't filled with these beasts. Well, there was the beast tide that just occurred.

If the person caught had male reproductive organs, the dokunpal would implant a seed within their genitals. Their brain would then be muddled with a different pollen and the person would be sent out to find another dark damp place where they would die and allow another dokunpal to grow.

Mid and high tier demons would easily be able to handle a dokunpal infestation, as long as they weren't allowed to expand too much. But areas with low tier demons could be wiped out quickly if they weren't contained right away.

Thankfully the women were too occupied with the dokunpal to notice Baldeur. This gave him enough time to prepare a way to take care of all of them.

'Light bend and air waver. Deceive those who look upon you: Mass Illusion.'

As Mana spread around the dokunpal, Baldeur slipped in the power of the Rising Sun to aid in the illusions power. He also used his limited mental abilities to send his Psychic Source energy within the illusion to give it a feeling of life.

Large illusions required a lot of concentration and could leave him vulnerable to attacks.

The illusion he created was the dokunpal coming to life. The tentacles could be seen elongating and secreting fluids. The small nodes were pumping out more pollen that was slipping through the Wind Wall.

"What's happening? Why is it getting more active?" A woman yelled.

"I don't know. We just need to hold it until the Matriarch returns with the sacrifices." Another said.

If that was the case then Baldeur needed to increase the threat.

An illusionary tentacle sprouted from the main node. It was far larger than the other ones. It wiped out towards one of the women maintaining the Wind Wall.

As it neared her, Baldeur used his telekinesis to pull her backwards, throwing her into the back of the cave.

The illusionary tentacle then moved towards the other woman that was maintaining the Wind Wall. She jumped out of the way, losing control of the spell.

With no barrier in place, the real pollen began to drift towards them.

"No, no, no. I don't want to be caught!" One of the women yelled as she ran from the main shrine.

"Get back here! We need everyone." Another woman yelled.

A moment later the one that ran screamed as she ran into one of Baldeur's traps.

"What's going on?" Someone yelled.

Baldeur shoved her with his telekinesis right after she spoke.

"We can't maintain this. We need the matriarch." Another of them fled from the shrine.

Her departure led to two more giving up and following. Each ended up triggering the traps that Baldeur left behind.

The lone woman stood before the beast as the illusion flailed around.

"I won't fail my Lord. I will obey." She said.

"Well that's just stupid." Baldeur said.

She turned to see him standing behind her. A Qi infused punch sent her flying into the side of the cave. After making sure she was unconscious he turned towards the dokunpal.

As the illusion vanished, he saw the real monster beginning to stir as the spells calming it faded.

After taking a deep breath Baldeur exhaled mixing in the power of Winter. Frost spread out before him. The dokunpal was part plant and plants didn't fare too well in the cold.

After pulling out his sword from his dimensional storage, Baldeur prepared a few other spells. In the sword hilt were orange citrine, violet amethyst, and a red ruby.

'Vigor to muscles while fatigue vanishes: Enhanced Strength.'

'Gravity lessens while reflexes increase: Enhanced Speed.'

With Mana backing up his Qi infused body, Baldeur's physical abilities rapidly increased. A Divinus song of protection left his lips and Winter spread from his staff. Lastly he used his telekinesis to form a barrier around his head to keep the pollen from influencing him.

He didn't use Infernius since that was seen as a food for the creature.

With the power of five Sources flowing through him and two Laksulm crafted items, Baldeur walked into the magical beast.